Checa x 2 At Phillip Island

Cycle News Staff | February 26, 2011

Although Max Biaggi and his factory Aprilia and Yamaha’s Marco Melandri were able to keep him a bit more honest this time out, Althea Ducati’s Carlos Checa once again came out on top of the second of two World Superbike races at Phillip Island to end a perfect week for the veteran from Spain.Checa’s again controlled things from the front, topping the Biaggi/Melandri battle by just 1.1 seconds after slowing in the final laps for the seventh win of his World Superbike career. The win put an exclamation point on a perfect weekend for Checa, the Ducati privateer earning pole position and both race wins. Naturally, he heads the championship after two races with a perfect score of 50 points.The battle for second went the distance with Biaggi beating countryman Melandri by .3 of a second. Those two were well clear of another battle that went to Castol Honda’s Jonathan Rea also by .3 of a second over BMW’s Leon Haslam. Rea came from well down in the order to finish fourth.Ditto for sixth-place finisher Leon Camier on the second factory Aprilia. Camier ended up topping Noriyuki Haga by just over half a second with Haga’s former Ducati teammate Michel Fabrizio just a 10th of a second behind in eighth.Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes finished ninth with Ruben Xaus 10th on the second Castrol Honda.Five different manufacturers filled the top five – Ducati, Aprilia, Yamaha, Honda and BMW and all seven manufacturers had bikes in the top 10 with Fabrizio and his Alstare Suzuki eighth and Sykes and the Kawasaki ninth.

Race Two

1.                  Carlos Checa (Ducati)

2.                  Max Biaggi (Aprilia)

3.                  Marco Melandri (Yamaha)

4.                  Jonathan Rea (Honda)

5.                  Leon Haslam (BMW0

6.                  Leon Camier (Aprilia)

7.                  Noriyuki Haga (Aprilia)

8.                  Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki)

9.                  Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)

10.                  Ruben Xaus (Honda)